This is really interesting. Although starting from a low base the rise in incomes in the Borders is outstripping everywhere else. I think this is because rural economies are more resilient. My salty old sea dog friend and when he could behave himself sometime mentor (the sadly departed Patrick Browne – who amongst other […]

Perhaps you were shopping online on Monday for Christmas presents? The statistics in this article are staggering: Amazon, the internet retailer said orders came in at a rate of 47 items a second, racking up 4.1m sales during the day and peaking at 9.22pm. Tesco said visits to its website were up 114% […]

Just before we all rush to judgement in terms of this article let me say that our current evaluations of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors for that fact aswell, Leader programmes, suggest something is being don’t to tackle these challenges set out in this article. It does however raise an interesting question about […]

You cant make an omlette with cracking a few eggs. Parts of Kent are far less affluent than people think. Parts of rural Kent need infrastructure investment to keep them viable. As this article demonstrates such investments are not without their detractors. I dont think I agree however with the apocalyptic vision offered by the […]

Why are there no big cities in the South East? Because they are part of a London driven economic driver which runs from the South Coast to the Humber. The only really european scale “City Regions” are the struggling West Midlands and the more vibrant Greater Manchester. Newcastle, Bristol and Leeds are “bright points” in […]